The Whole Earth Systems symposium is an international gathering of academic, government, media, and non-profit scholars and
leaders who have accepted the challenge of an interdisciplinary approach to environmental concerns... We celebrate the professional
contributions of Stephen Schneider whose career-thus-far has personally and intellectually touched all of these fields of
inquiry.

The Stanford symposium was organized into several major themes, such as preserving whole Earth systems, economics and policy
analysis, and "media-rology"—the role of scientists as communicators and advocates. Because the conference represented a wide
spectrum of expertise, speakers and panelists often used broad brushstrokes to make their point. For example, Stanford economist
Kenneth J. Arrow offered a concise history of global sustainability predictions, from Adam Smith to the present, then raised
the question of whether the modern world is sustainable.

The symposium was sponsored by CESP; the Energy Modeling Forum; the Stanford Institute for the Environment; the New-Land Foundation;
the Ju Tang Chu and Wu Ping Chu Foundation; the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance; and anonymous donors.